Caribbean Islands

Bermuda

Introduction

Britain's oldest colony, and the spiritual home of the ubiquitous
knee-length Bermuda shorts, first introduced by the military in the
1900's. Bermuda consists of a small group of Eolian limestone islands
located 1,000km off the east coast of the United States in that part of
the Western Atlantic known as the Sargasso Sea.

Bermuda is a cluster of about 150 small islands and reefs. The eight
largest islands are connected by causeways and bridges to form a 35 km
long, continuos land mass which is barely 1.5 km wide. As the area is
highly populated and space is at a premium, local families are only
permitted one small car per household. Taxis are very expensive, public
transport unheard of and car hire is not allowed, so it is either shank's
pony or rented mopeds. Naturally, being a British Colony, everybody
drives on the left.

Geology

Bermuda was created by volcanic eruptions along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge about 100
million years ago.
At that time, the Atlantic Ocean was much narrower and Bermuda was in closer
proximity to Europe and Africa.
With the sea floor spreading and the widening of the Atlantic, shifted Bermuda
away from the Eastern Hemisphere, while maintaining its position relative to the
North American coast.
During the early Pleistocene (about 1-2 million years ago), the top of the
volcanic sea mount was eroded down below sea level and corals began to grow
around the margins, thus producing the only atoll in the North Atlantic.
Today, the volcanic basement rocks of Bermuda are completely covered by
limestone.
This limestone originated as carbonate sand from the reefs that formed dunes,
which subsequently were cemented through the action of rain into rock.
All known caves of Bermuda are formed in this limestone caprock.

More than 150 limestone caves have
been recorded in Bermuda. These caves are of an impressive size,
containing abundant stalactites and stalagmites. Although most cave
entrances are situated inland, many of the caves extend down to sea level
and contain clear, deep, anchialine pools in their interior. Diving
explorations of the underwater sections of Bermuda's caves have resulted
in the discovery of extensive networks of cave passage at depths
averaging 18m. Bermuda's longest cave, the Green Bay Cave System is
totally submerged and contains more than 2km of explored passageways.
The presence of stalactites and stalagmites in the underwater caves is
proof that the caves must have been dry for prolonged periods of time
during the Ice Ages when sea level was at least 100m lower than today.

An amazing variety of previously unknown, cave-adapted species have been
discovered in Bermuda's anchialine caves. While some of these species
are related to similar forms from caves on opposite sides of the
Atlantic, others have close affinities to cave species from the Pacific
Ocean or even from the deep sea. It has been suggested that some of
Bermuda's marine cave invertebrates reached the island via the Gulf
Stream from the Caribbean, while others may have survived on submerged
and emergent sea mounts along the Mid Atlantic Ridge for 100 million
years. Other species may represent relict deep sea fauna or even
descendants of animals which once inhabited the Tethys Sea - the name for
the world ocean that existed at the time all the Earth's land masses were
combined into one super continent. Seventy-five stygobitic (aquatic
cave-adapted) species have been identified from the Bermuda caves
including 64 crustaceans, 5 mites, 2 ciliates, 2 gastropod molluscs and
2 segmented worms. In order of abundance, the crustaceans include 18
species of copepods, 18 ostracods, 7 amphipods, 6 shrimps, 6 cumaceans
and 3 isopods. Notable in their absence are remipedes and
thermosbaenaceans.

Show Caves

A number of Bermuda caves, including Admiral's, Castle Grotto,
Cathedral, Crystal, Fantasy, Island, Leamington, Tuckers' Island Caves,
Walsingham, and Wonderland, have been operated as commercial tourist
attractions. The Devil's Hole, a collapse cave that was first opened for
public exhibition in 1843, is utilised as a natural fishpond containing
sharks, groupers, and sea turtles. Blue Grotto, another water-filled
collapse cave, was recently the site of trained dolphin shows.
Prospero's (previously known as Island) Cave contains an underground bar
and discotheque.